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15Oct07

PLANS TO TAX THE PUB QUIZ

Pub Quiz nights in Trafford face being hit with a new tax next year.

The Valuation Office Agency, an arm of Inland Revenue, was forced to publish its secretive tax handbook for the start of the business rates revaluation next year. Special guidance is included in the inspection manual on how to value and tax pubs.

Mark Versallion, prospective MP for Stretford and Urmston, said: "The revaluation for business rates, along with revaluation of Council Tax bands, is becoming the best way for government to make a fast buck. To even consider adding in a pub quiz night as justification for higher business rates on that pub is outrageous. Once again government is finding new ways to tax every aspect of our lives."

Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles MP, said: "We already knew that Gordon Brown's tax snoops are preparing for a council tax revaluation, and want to enter people's homes to tax conservatories, bedrooms and nice neighbourhoods. It is now clear that these tax snoops are readying their clipboards, cameras and tape measures for a rates revaluation, using the same Big Brother computer technology that is planned to tax people's homes.

"In his usual sneaky way, Gordon Brown is planning to tax the traditional pub quiz. Labour and their Whitehall bureaucrats fail to understand that if pubs are charged extra taxes for supporting quiz nights, darts or a local football team, then many pub bosses will just scrap these social facilities to save cash. Conservatives will fight these stealth tax plans and stand up for the great British pub."